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The music and celebrity blogs are all abuzz with an announcement by Jay Z that he and his wife, mega-singer Beyoncé, are going vegan – at least until Christmas. The rapper, whose 44th birthday was December 4th, announced a 22-day “spiritual and physical cleanse” that will wrap up on Christmas day.

Explaining on his website that his interest in a plant-based diet had been inspired by the urging of a friend (celebrity-watchers speculated that this might be Gwyneth Paltrow or Oprah), Jay Z also mentioned the current pop-psych fascination with habit-formation.

“Psychologists have said it takes 21 days to make or break a habit,” he wrote in wrote in a blog post on the website Life and Times. ”On the 22nd day, you’ve found the way.”

Jay Z, who is a philanthropist and investor as well as a musician, said he chose the timing to honor his birthday, which is December 4th, and based on the significance of the number 22. “Why now? There’s something spiritual to me about it being my 44th birthday and the serendipity behind the number of days in this challenge; 22 (2+2=4) coupled with the fact that the challenge ends on Christmas day… It just feels right!”

So, given the fact that where celebrities go, others follow, it seems likely that a lot more people will jump on the vegan bandwagon in the next few weeks. (The Washington Post even ran a photo gallery of other celebrities who’ve gone vegan.) Is this a good idea? Here are a few myths and facts about going vegan.

1. Fact: A Vegan Diet Is Plant-Based

In his note, Jay Z referred to a vegan diet as plant-based, and he’s correct, to a point. While the term plant-based diet is used loosely and sometimes includes diets that do allow meat, vegans avoid any and all animal products. (Although in many cases there seems to be a convenient blind spot when it comes to wearing leather, wool or silk, all of which are no-nos for strict vegans.) Vegans have to read food labels closely to avoid animal products in hidden ingredients like oils, fillers, flavorings, and preservatives.

2. Myth: A Vegan Diet Has to Be Healthy

As respected nutrition expert David L. Katz wrote in a Q&A for Oprah, a vegan diet is no more nor less healthy than any other diet depending on the food choices that you make. “After all, doughnuts, French fries, corn chips and lollipops can qualify as vegan if they contain vegetable oil instead of butter or lard,” he writes.

3. Fact: A Healthy Vegan Diet May Help You Live Longer

There’s a significant body of research suggesting that eating a plant-based diet can help you avoid many of the major chronic illnesses that we assume are a necessary part of aging. According to an article in Medical News Today, studies show that the rates of heart attack, cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease are much higher in regions of the world where animal-based diets are the norm. Other studies show that the antioxidants and other compounds in plants help lower the risk of chronic disease.

4. Myth: Going Vegan Is a Great Way to Lose Weight

Yes, cheese is fascinating, and yes, meat can be a major source of saturated fat in our diet. But most good weight loss diets have a prominent place for lean meat and seafood, and without them you can actually gain weight, not lose it. (See Shape Magazine’s post on this for insights and tips for how not to let this happen to you.)

5. Both Myth and Fact: A Vegan Diet May Not Provide Enough Protein

This one, of course, depends on how hard you work to maintain your protein intake without the convenience of meat. Beyoncé and Jay Z undoubtedly have a personal chef (or chefs) who will prepare them gourmet-yet-healthy vegan meals on demand. And sans that luxury, eating vegan can be quite an effort. But is it impossible, or even all that difficult? No. Here’ from the Vegetarian Resource Group is a great rundown of easy sources of protein for vegans.

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I’ve been vegan for almost 3 years, and have been living in a regional city for the past 16 months. It’s certainly not an effort to get healthful, nutritious food that meets my needs. I have to disagree with the stated claim about the point of veganism. It’s not about eating foods that are as close to their natural state as possible; it’s about eliminating the products of exploitation from our lives. Veganism is a social justice movement based on the idea that non-human animals exist for their own reasons, and that we don’t need to eat them, wear them, experiment on them, or use them for entertainment. A plant-based diet is great, and it’s certainly a major part of veganism, but it not all there is to the movement. Using the two terms interchangeably is misleading and erroneous. With that said, I definitely hope that J and B stick to it, and learn about the way our food choices impact others’ lives, and make the switch to being entirely vegan, for the animals, the environment, and for their own health.

Going vegan can help people lose weight, it really does depend on what they consume. “Junk food” vegans tend to stay the same weight, or even gain, but if you make an effort to consume healthier vegan foods, you will more than likely lose weight. I lost ten pounds the first month I was vegan, my friend Scott lost 20, and my fiance lost *30* pounds his first month being vegan.

Jay Z was right to say that he is going on a “plant based diet” and not going vegan. Veganism is NOT a diet. It is a lifestyle which is about avoiding animal products as much as possible (I assume Jay Z isn’t going to discontinue his leather fashion lines…). Yeah, and veganism has nothing to do with eating food in their natural state. Where did the writer come up with that one? I guess he confused veganism with raw foodism.

It is annoying that veganism always gets touted as a weight-loss diet. I’m all for veganism getting more attention, but not for erroneous reasons. There are plenty of fat vegans out there – though the obesity rates are less than for the general public (http://plenteousveg.com/fat-vegans/). At least the writer here got that point right that a vegan diet isn’t necessarily healthy if you just eat processed junk all day.

Thanks for the helpful perspectives. I hear from vegans who embrace it as a lifestyle choice and others who consider it primarily a way of eating. Possibly it may depend at least partially on the motivation for going vegan. It will be interesting to see if J and B stay vegan when their 22-day commitment is up.

I was on every version of a vegetarian/vegan/raw vegan diet there is for over 16 years. I rarely, if ever, ate processed or sugary foods. The only thing I can tell people for sure is that it was harmful to my health. My blood work was not great. Sure, my cholesterol level was low, but my HDL to LDL ratio sucked and my triglycerides were high. I also suffered from gum and teeth problems. I always thought I just had to tweek my diet and that would help since vegetarian/vegan diets are, of course, the healthiest. After several years of not getting good results, and after getting involved with Crossfit, I got on a Paleo/Primal type diet and things changed dramatically for me in terms of health and performance. It’s a lot easier to make good diet decisions when you have some gauges of health and performance to look at to see how any particular diet is working for you. My best advice for people looking to get on a healthy diet is to pay attention to how you look, feel, and perform on any one diet, and don’t spend too much time staying on a diet that is not producing positive results in those areas.